The Curse of Being Smart
by Jack E. Peace
Summary: J.D. takes Laura on the tour of his school and tries to do a little more then that.


Disclaimer: None of the characters belong to me...you know this

A/N: So, I'm in the middle of writing two long DAT stories but since I'm at my dad's, I don't have access to them. So I thought I'd amuse myself by writing a short one. It's dedicated to my best friend, whom you all know as Lucie Brody; in a few days, she'll have her next DAT story up and it's so great! I expect everyone to read it. Anyway, enjoy this little story and please review.

As far as Sam Hall was concerned, Laura Chapman was the perfect lady: polite and poised as she introduced Brian Parks and himself to the competition: J.D. Walters. On top of being more polite then he ever was, Laura was also beautiful and adorable and Sam found it impossible to take his eyes off her for she looked absolutely ravishing in the sleek gray dress she had chosen for the Decathlon "meet and greet." Sam could definitely stare at Laura all day.

In fact, he was having a hard time looking away from her until he noticed that the jerk from Pine Hurst, J.D., was staring at her as well. He didn't seem to be making any move to hide the fact that he was studying Laura's legs beneath the bottom of her dress and everything else in between and Sam cleared his throat. J.D. looked over at him for a moment, a smug look in his eyes, before returning his gaze to Laura, staring at her face this time.

"Your school is amazing." Laura told J.D., oblivious to his stares. She fixed him with a smile that made Sam jealous. Her words were genuine because the beautiful décor and sweeping ceilings of the school took her breath away. Pine Hurst Academy was just beautiful.

J.D. smiled as though the complement was just for him. "Thanks. Would like a tour?" He questioned.

Laura's gaze flicked toward Sam and they locked eyes for a brief moment; a part of her wanted him to say no, to give her some sign that there might be something there. But Sam looked away and Laura sighed, returning her attention to J.D. "Sure." She agreed.

Sam sighed, managing to keep a frown off his face. Laura looked back at him and said his name, causing him to instantly perk up. Maybe she had changed her mind, had decided to stay with him instead of going off with that prep school jerk. Sam was already imaging the beautiful words of previously unspoken love that would come pouring from Laura's mouth when the words that actually were spoken crushed his dreams instantly. "Can you hold this for a sec?" She questioned, offering him her half-empty glass.

With another sigh, Sam felt his shoulders slump. "Sure." He mumbled, taking the glass from her. Their fingers touched for a brief moment before Laura pulled back, offering him a weak smile and muttering a 'thanks'.

Sam felt as though his heart was being run over by a snowplow as he watched Laura walk off with J.D., threading their way through the crowd and toward the entrance of the cafeteria. Laura glanced over her shoulder and their eyes met once again; Sam suddenly had the strong desire to go after her, to keep her for himself before J.D. could even get the idea to do the same.

But Laura looked away again, nodding politely at something J.D. had said and Sam knew that he could never do such a thing. He tried to tell himself that he had nothing to worry about as he absently sipped Laura's drink; he was way more attractive then J.D.

Laura decided that now was not the time to attempt to sort out her feelings for Sam as she followed J.D. out of the crowded cafeteria and into the hallway. She had wanted to see something in his eyes when J.D. had offered to give her the tour, something that said that he didn't want her to go off with him, something that said that her feelings were returned. But there had been nothing, just the same old blue-eyed Sam Hall stare that she had fallen in love with the second she had seen him.

J.D. said something to her about the room they had entered and Laura felt guilty that she hadn't really heard what he had said. It wasn't J.D.'s fault that she was unattractive to Sam; the least she could do was pay attention to him. Instead of asking him to repeat what he had said, Laura just nodded her head and let her eyes sweep across the room they had entered.

This room was undoubtedly the common room, with numerous couches pressed against the walls and in the middle of the room, which were currently being lounged on students whose days hadn't been interrupted by the Decathlon meet.

J.D. waved to a group of guys sitting on one of the couches and they raised their hands to return the greeting; one of them smiled at J.D. and winked, looking over at Laura. Suddenly, Laura felt vulnerable and exposed in the dress that she had borrowed from her mother's closet. Sam had never made her feel like that and she had the urge to go back into the cafeteria and forget all about the tour. But what would that accomplish? Nothing at all and so she turned to look at J.D. "Who are they?" Laura questioned, hoping that ignoring J.D's apparent friends would take some of the color out of her cheeks.

"Nobody." J.D. told her, taking her by the arm and pulling her out of the common room. Laura slipped her arm out of his grasp and looked away when he looked at her questioningly.

Before J.D. could say anything, Laura repeated, "Your school is amazing." She felt like an idiot, but she wasn't in the mood to explain why she had pulled away from him. She wasn't in the mood to explain that she was a lovesick teenage girl, pinning away for the boy that didn't see her as anything but a teammate.

"Yeah." J.D. agreed, off-handedly, somewhat bored. He saw the same hallways and the same ceiling beams everyday, so it was interesting to see how someone else responded to the architecture. "This is Winston Hall." He explained, though he wasn't sure Laura really cared. But, then again, she did look quite taken with the décor. "It's the math hallway."

Laura's eyes roamed across the sweeping oak ceiling beams and the painted portraits of people that she didn't recognize. Founders of the school, no doubt. "This place makes my school look like a real dump." She remarked.

"It can't be that bad." J.D. said as he led her through the math hallway and into another corridor that was empty. "I'm sure it has a lot of history." God, he felt like an idiot; was he trying to pick this girl up or bore her to death? This was not the J.D. Walters who had the reputation for being a ladies man about campus.

Laura rolled her eyes. "History, right. Only in the classrooms." She told him, noticing that J.D. had stepped a little closer to her. So, she stepped closer to the wall. "So, which hall is this?" She questioned in an attempt to distract him from whatever thoughts were going through his head.

"Uh..." J.D. didn't really care where they were anymore. "This is where the teach calculus." He thought.

Thinking about calculus reminded Laura of Sam and she was once again reminded of what an idiot she was. Was she going to spend the rest of her life thinking about Sam whenever someone mentioned calculus, or school, or...anything. Taking her thoughts away from Sam was the fact that J.D. was edging closer toward her and the fact that she had promptly backed herself against the wall trying to edge away from him.

"I like calculus." Laura told J.D. quickly, anything to keep him from doing what she thought he was about to. "That's my best class and-"

Before she could finish her meaningless sentence, J.D. had closed the distance between them and was kissing Laura before she even realized what was happening. With a muffled cry of surprise, Laura attempted to pull away from him but there was still that damn wall keeping her in place. That, and J.D.'s arms, which had wrapped themselves around her shoulders.

Finally, Laura managed to push J.D. off of her, trying to figure out if she should be outraged or shocked. She was a little bit of both, but, in the end, embarrassment won over and she felt her cheeks flush; the first thing she thought of was Sam, even though it wasn't as though she had any commitment to him. But if he had happened to arrive at that moment and see them kissing...well, her being kissed, then she would never even have the chance to try and explain how she felt about him.

"What are you doing?" Laura questioned, anger creeping into her words. She looked at J.D. with confusion on her face, keeping herself against the wall in an attempt to keep as much distance between them as possible. "What-?" She didn't know what to say.

J.D. looked at her with surprise, as though he hadn't been the one doing the kissing. "But I..." He didn't know what to say because he wasn't planning on being pushed halfway across the hallway but a girl that looked like she couldn't lift her textbooks. He also hadn't been counting on the irritation that he saw in Laura's eyes. "I just thought..." Once again, he didn't know what he had thought. He thought that Laura would, if not welcome then appreciate, his advances like half the female population at Pine Hurst.

Laura just shook her head, unable to form a sentence that wasn't crueler then anything she had ever said in her life. So, instead of snapping at J.D., who she wanted to believe had meant well, she just kept shaking her head.

At first, J.D. was a little confused by Laura's rejection but then the reason hit him suddenly. "You like Sam, don't you?" He questioned, though he was certain what the answer was going to be, whether Laura choose to answer truthfully.

Laura felt her cheeks flush once more, just as they always did whenever any one mentioned Sam around her. Shortly after she had transferred to Woodmont High from Boston, she had been sitting in Lit class with a group of girls who had decided that discussing boys was more efficient then doing their group project. One of the girls had mentioned Sam and Laura's cheeks had instantly turned tomato red, giving the rest of her group members something to laugh and talk about for the next fifteen minutes.

J.D. smiled slightly when Laura's cheeks reddened and he knew that a verbal answer wasn't necessary to confirm his suspicions. "I'm sorry, Laura." He apologized somewhat sincerely. He wasn't completely sincere because he didn't take back having kissed her. "If I had known then I wouldn't have done that."

Laura waved her hand somewhat dismissively. "It's all right." She mumbled, though she wasn't quite sure it was. She had always imagined that her first kiss would be with someone that she really liked; but it wasn't as though anyone needed to know that had been her first kiss.

"No, I feel like an ass." J.D. mumbled. "Let me make it up to you."

Laura shook her head, starting back toward the cafeteria with J.D. in tow. "Don't worry about it." She assured him, wishing that the entire moment were over. She just wanted to be back with Sam and Brian and Decathlon related subjects. At least that was something she knew how to handle.

"Then at least let me offer you some advice." J.D. pressed, walking beside her down the hallway. Laura looked over at him, more intrigued then anything about what that advice might be. "Tell Sam how you feel. Trust me, guys are pretty dense when it comes to that stuff." Well, not all guys, he wanted to say, but he didn't think now was the time to blow his own horn.

Laura sighed and forced the redness from her cheeks. "Yeah." She mumbled noncommittally. She knew that she could never tell Sam how she felt about him and unless he suddenly expressed some unknown desire to be with her, her feelings would remain private.

Laura decided right then that that was the curse of being smart. Because the smart girls, never got the guys.


End file.
